Washington's singular accomplishment

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MG23Ak01.html


-snip-

According to Thom Shanker of the New York Times, the United States military has gathered biometric data - "digital scans of eyes, photographs of the face and fingerprints" - on 2.2 million Iraqis and 1.5 million Afghans, with an emphasis on men of an age to become insurgents, and has saved all of it in the Automated Biometric Information System, a vast computerized database. Imagine: we're talking about one of every 14 Iraqis and one of every 20 Afghans. Who says America's a can't-do nation?

The Pentagon is pouring an estimated US$3.5 billion into its biometric programs (2007 through 2015). And though it's been a couple of rough weeks when it comes to money in Washington, at least no one can claim that taxpayer dollars have been ill-spent on this project. Give the Pentagon just another five to 10 years in Iraq and Afghanistan and the biometric endeavor of a lifetime should be complete. Then Washington will be able to identify any Iraqi or Afghan on the planet by eye-scan alone.

Be proud, America!

-snip-

Franchising a no-friends policy
Biometrics aside, there were some other startling numbers out of the Greater Middle East recently. As it happened, some non-military types were also looking into eyes, not for retinal patterns, but patterns of thought. Pollsters from IBOPE Zogby International checked out 4,000 sets of eyes in six Middle Eastern countries - Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco - at least five of which qualify as US allies, and in none of which has the US bombed, invaded, or carried out a night raid in recent memory.
-long snip-
----------------------------

but they want to cut SS and not fix our falling apart country

[ensho]

1. kicking back to pg. 1 as this info is important

nt